The Latest

Sunday, July 31, 2016

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

Friday, July 29, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:ABC Democratic National Convention (0.9) and NBC Democratic National Convention (1.1) and Home Free (0.6) adjusted up while Hollywood Game Night (0.6) and Legends of Tomorrow (R) (0.2) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

CBS' comedy repeats (1.3/1.1) and upticking Big Brother (1.8) helped boost the final night of CBS 10/9c Democratic National Convention coverage (0.8) to its highest rating of the week, and competitive with the coverage on ABC (0.7) and NBC (0.9).

Those other DNC telecasts had much less lead-in help. On ABC, BattleBots (0.8) tried to keep its hat in the ring, getting a tick back after last week's big drop, but Greatest Hits (0.6) kept moving in the wrong direction. NBC featured a repeat of Running Wild (0.7) and the original return of Hollywood Game Night (0.7), which had been pulled from the schedule after getting some 0.7's on Sundays in March.

Elsewhere, Fox unloaded two more hours of Home Free (0.6/0.5), and will do the same to wrap up the run next week. The CW's Legends of Tomorrow repeat (0.3) is preliminarily threatening to end an eight-week streak of 0.2's, but Beauty and the Beast (0.2) is not.

Week two saw last week's big premieres of Power (0.82) on Starz and Ballers (0.62) on HBO each drop by more than 20%. Power is still crushing last year's deliveries, and may have spawned a miniature version of that growth story in comedy Survivor's Remorse (0.41). After two very quiet seasons on Saturday, never going higher than a 0.19, it opened its Sunday career by more than doubling that high point (and more than tripling the 0.12 season two premiere).

Thursday, July 28, 2016

FINALS UPDATE: With presumably a big boost from President Obama's largely post-primetime speech, all three networks' convention coverage adjusted up to 0.8/0.6/0.9. Black-ish (R) (0.8), Big Brother (1.7) and America's Got Talent (1.8) were also up. On the downswing were The Goldbergs (R) (0.6), American Gothic (0.5), The Night Shift (1.0), Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.3), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.4) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (R) (0.4).

WHAT MATTERS:

NBC squeezed an episode of The Night Shift (1.1) into the 9/8c hour. While it was a pretty good rating by TNS standards, it didn't seem to help the surrounding programs; its America's Got Talent lead-in took a big drop to 1.7 airing in just the 8/7c hour, and the Democratic convention coverage (0.7) was surprisingly way down at 10/9c. NBC only tied ABC (0.7) but still significantly led CBS (0.4) in the 10/9c hour.

It was a pretty low-end night for the other Wednesday staples, as well; both Big Brother (1.6) and MasterChef (1.0) were down to new Wednesday season lows, at least in the prelims. At 9/8c, both American Gothic (0.6) and the finale of Wayward Pines (0.7) were even.

ABC had some minor improvement from its comedy repeats (0.7/0.6/0.9/0.7), and the CW's Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.4) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.5) were both on the upswing (if they can hold in finals).

Schedules Plus is the ultimate almanac to broadcast network primetime scheduling since 2001. It features lineups for three different parts of the year, as well as A18-49+ ratings that more fairly account for historical decline. For more on the tables and charts in Schedules Plus, see this primer.

This post covers NBC Thursday. Scripted lineups don't get much more potent than NBC's early-aughts Thursday schedules, book-ended by iconic comedy Friends and medical drama ER. After Friends ended in 2004, the numbers on this night really tanked... but so did the rest of the network, so comedy nights led by The Office were still among the brightest spots during NBC's darkest years. As The Office fell and then went away, things got ridiculously ugly for awhile, but the drama The Blacklist has at least provided some seeds for a turn-around. See the 2016-17 Breakdown.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:America's Got Talent (2.3), The Bachelorette (1.4) and the CBS Democratic National Convention (0.5)adjusted up while Zoo (0.7), and NBC Democratic National Convention (1.2), Coupled (0.4) and both Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.3) adjusted down.

WHAT MATTERS:

The Bachelorette (1.4/1.3) stopped off on Tuesday for its "Men Tell All" episode, looking to finish the season before the Olympics, but it was well below its usual levels and handily outrated by NBC's America's Got Talent (2.2).

At 10/9c, those shows led into Democratic National Convention coverage on NBC (1.3) and ABC (0.7), while CBS (0.4) lagged. These ratings improved again on the corresponding night of the Republican convention last week (1.0/0.5/0.5 respectively), but were a bit behind the DNC Tuesday in 2012 (1.2/0.8/0.7).

It was a brutal start for the CW's revival of MADtv (0.3), leading out of a double-shot of Whose Line Is It Anyway? originals (0.4/0.4). This opening episode managed just half the 0.6 that a MADtv reunion scored in January. Even repeats of that special, including one on Monday night, have gotten 0.3's!

CBS' Zoo was back up to its usual 0.8 after a brief stop at 0.7 last week, while Fox's Hotel Hell and Coupled had their typical 0.9/0.5 combo.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

FINALS UPDATE: Lots of convention updates, as NBC (1.1) and CBS (0.6) went up while ABC (0.9) went down. Both of the CW's shows went down.

WHAT MATTERS:

ABC (1.0), CBS (0.5) and NBC (1.0) all covered the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in the 10:00 hour. In 2012, NBC had a 1.2 for the opening night of coverage (like with the Republicans, on Tuesday instead of Monday), beating ABC (0.8) and CBS (0.7).

Earlier in the night, the penultimate Monday of The Bachelorette (1.9) beat out a soft-ish night from NBC's American Ninja Warrior (1.6), while Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (0.7) and CBS' repeats (0.7/0.7/0.6) lagged considerably. On the eve of tonight's MADtv revival, the CW averaged a 0.4 for a repeat of its recent MADtv reunion special.

Schedules Plus is the ultimate almanac to broadcast network primetime scheduling since 2001. It features lineups for three different parts of the year, as well as A18-49+ ratings that more fairly account for historical decline. For more on the tables and charts in Schedules Plus, see this primer.

This post covers CBS Thursday. Just before the start of the A18-49+ era, CBS became a huge Thursday force by combining summer 2000 reality sensation Survivor with game-changing crime procedural CSI. They were quite competitive with the last years of NBC's Must See TV, then dominated in its immediate aftermath. The duo slipped considerably through the second half of the aughts, but CBS has stayed strong even after their departures from the night thanks to massive comedy The Big Bang Theory. See the 2016-17 Breakdown.

ABC's game shows all edged downward in week five, though Celebrity Family Feud (1.4) and The $100,000 Pyramid (1.4) still stayed relatively clear of their holiday weekend lows from three weeks ago. Match Game (1.1) tied its July 3rd low.

Coming off of a dominant 1.5 for a bonus Friday episode, Big Brother (1.9) posted another Sunday season high, stretching its lead on the ABC lineup even more. But that did very little for Madam Secretary (0.5) at 9/8c and nothing for the Sunday 10/9c debut of BrainDead (0.3), which somehow found yet another new low point.

Fox had more comedy repeats (0.4/0.5/0.7/0.5/0.7/0.5) while NBC's slow march toward the Olympics continued, led by a two-hour repeat of American Ninja Warrior (0.7).

Sunday, July 24, 2016

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

Friday, July 22, 2016

On the last night of the Republican National Convention, it looks like the big speech from nominee Donald Trump attracted some additional interest on ABC (0.7) and CBS (0.7), while NBC (1.1) was flat despite a much lower lead-in from the two-hour finale of Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge (0.9). However, Trump's speech ran way out of primetime on the East Coast (and way into primetime on the West Coast), so that could complicate things in the finals.

At least in the prelims, it was a down night for almost everything entertainment; ABC's BattleBots (0.7) and Greatest Hits (0.7) each fell to new lows, CBS' Big Brother (1.7) and repeat of The Big Bang Theory (1.3) were also down, and so was Fox's duo of the Bones (0.8) season finale and Home Free (0.4). But again, these may be subject to some abnormal adjustments.

This week's big story is the incredible rise of the Starz drama Power. In its first ever Sunday episode, it smashed through cable's recent 1.0 glass ceiling, opening season three with a 1.10 and absolutely dominating a head-to-head three-way with dramas on HBO and Showtime. For Power, it's a new series high by more than four tenths, and 80% above its last premiere. This is pretty crazy considering season two was already about 80% bigger than season one. It's quite a growth story from 0.3ish ratings as late as midway through its first season.

Power often draws comparisons to the Fox megahit Empire. One of the many secrets to Empire's success is its huge appeal within both genders, and you can kinda see that in play with Power as well. The show skews much more female than most of the staple cable dramas, but also a lot more male than potentially comparable dramas like ABC's TGIT soaps. (Or maybe the cable equivalent would be the OWN dramas.)

Schedules Plus is the ultimate almanac to broadcast network primetime scheduling since 2001. It features lineups for three different parts of the year, as well as A18-49+ ratings that more fairly account for historical decline. For more on the tables and charts in Schedules Plus, see this primer.

This post covers ABC Thursday. The night was a complete wasteland for ABC during the years of megahits Survivor, Friends and CSI duking it out on Thursday. But a few years after the end of Friends, ABC put its hat squarely in the Thursday ring by bringing in medical megahit Grey's Anatomy. It took many years for Grey's to find a truly potent Thursday companion, fellow Shonda Rhimes creation Scandal, and then How to Get Away with Murder rounded out a night of top-to-bottom dominance soon after that. But those younger guns have faded of late, and it's Grey's Anatomy making an improbable re-emergence as queen of Thursday. See the 2016-17 Breakdown.

With more America's Got Talent (2.2) as a lead-in, NBC's Republican National Convention coverage (1.3) walloped the combined ABC (0.5) / CBS (0.4) ratings, and should set a new weekly high for NBC even if it adjusts down.

In another 8/7c reality logjam, Big Brother (1.7) ticked down but MasterChef (1.2) inched up in the prelims. At 9/8c, CBS' American Gothic (0.6) stopped off in the hour due to RNC coverage and, as is typical of these dramas, saw little improvement with the direct Big Bro lead-in. It narrowly lost the head-to-head with Wayward Pines (0.7).

ABC had another rather soft evening of comedy repeats (0.6/0.6/0.8/0.6) as The Goldbergs made the move to 8/7c.

And the CW's Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.3) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.3) each downticked in their second weeks on Wednesday.

An America's Got Talent lead-in (2.1/2.4) helped NBC match Monday's 1.1 in day two of Republican National Convention coverage at 10/9c.

NBC beat the combined convention ratings from ABC (0.5) and CBS (0.5), both of which had fractional lead-ins. ABC made a brief return to a two-hour comedy night with soft-rated repeats (0.6/0.6/0.5/0.4) and will hand the night over to The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise going forward, while CBS had NCIS (R) (0.7) and a downtick from Zoo (0.7).

Elsewhere, Hotel Hell (0.8) inched down leading into Coupled (0.5) on Fox, while the CW wrapped up the run of Containment with another 0.3.

Schedules Plus is the ultimate almanac to broadcast network primetime scheduling since 2001. It features lineups for three different parts of the year, as well as A18-49+ ratings that more fairly account for historical decline. For more on the tables and charts in Schedules Plus, see this primer.

This post covers CW Wednesday. It's been a decent night for the network pretty much throughout its existence, with reality hit America's Next Top Model anchoring the evening in the first few years and superhero drama Arrow taking over almost immediately after Top Model finally collapsed. But both Top Model and Arrow have struggled to launch series at 9/8c; the night was actually at its very best last season, when old reliable Supernatural did the 9/8c dirty work. See the 2016-17 Breakdown.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:The Bachelorette (1.9) and American Ninja Warrior (1.8) both adjusted up to match last week's ratings.

ABC (0.7), CBS (0.5) and NBC (1.1) began their coverage of the Reupblican National
Convention in the 10/9c hour. The broadcast primetime coverage has
traditionally begun on Tuesday rather than Monday. In 2012, the first
night averaged a 0.6 on ABC, 0.5 on CBS and 1.0 on NBC. In 2008, the
first night went 0.8 on ABC, 0.8 on CBS and 1.2 on NBC.

Earlier in the night, usual Monday leaders The Bachelorette (1.8) and American Ninja Warrior (1.7) both inched down, while Fox's So You Think You Can Dance (0.7) was flat. CBS had repeats (0.7/0.6/0.6).

Monday, July 18, 2016

It was a big night for premium cable as Starz' Power (1.10) had a massive breakthrough night in kicking off Starz' move of original programming from Saturday to Sunday. It nearly doubled the 0.61 with which it started its last season.

HBO also did strong business with the return of Ballers (0.79) and the launch of lead-out comedy Vice Principals (0.55), and their presence seemed to lift 9/8c drama The Night Of (0.52) considerably.

It was a mostly steady week four for ABC's Sunday Fun & Games, with The $100,000 Pyramid (1.4) inching down to score below its Celebrity Family Feud (1.5) lead-in for the first time. Sandwiching Pyramid, Feud and Match Game (1.2) were both even.

Big Brother (1.8) gained a tenth to top the night comfortably with its best Sunday rating of the season. Other than that, it was a broadcast wasteland; 60 Minutes (0.8) and a two-hour American Ninja Warrior (0.8) repeat were the best of the rest. The Fox comedy repeats (0.4/0.5/0.6/0.5/0.7/0.4) improved a bit from last week when they had a golf lead-in, but the CBS drama repeats stayed at 0.4/0.3.

Sunday, July 17, 2016

The Ultimate SpotVault is a fully sortable record of every single episode in the history of a veteran series. This allows you to compare both raw numbers (total viewership and adults 18-49 rating) as well as the historical-adjusted stat A18-49+ for episodes across different seasons. This table also has the lead-in's A18-49+ for each episode, so you can see which episodes had the most and least support.

Friday, July 15, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge (1.0) and Bones (0.9) adjusted up while Life in Pieces (R) (1.1) and Aquarius (0.4) adjusted down. The ABC town hall was not counted in finals but its prelim is included here for True formula purposes.

On ABC, BattleBots took a week off in favor of an ABC News town hall (1.0) with President Obama on violence and race relations. It was a narrow improvement on last week's BattleBots (0.9) and had no noticeable effect on Greatest Hits (0.9) and the 10/9c repeat of Match Game (0.8)

The CBS repeats of The Big Bang Theory (1.5), Life in Pieces (1.2) and Code Black (0.8) were all up a tenth, surrounding a steady Big Brother (1.9). Big Bro is one adjustment away from its first 2.0 of the season.

Fox's Bones (0.8) was back from a couple weeks off and preliminarily down a tenth, while Home Free had yet another 0.5.

NBC had another two hours of Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge (0.8 for the 8/7c repeat, 0.9 for the 9/8c original), while Aquarius (0.5) hopes to hold onto its new! season! high! after adjusting down in finals last week.

And the CW had a seventh consecutive pair of 0.2's from Legends of Tomorrow (R) and Beauty and the Beast.

The double-episode return of USA's heavily-acclaimed Mr. Robot averaged a 0.43 demo, narrowly dodging the 0.42 season low from last year and not far behind the 0.46 season premiere and finale.

There are a couple ways of looking at this. The natural reaction is probably: "Boy, all that hype did nothing for the ratings!" The way I look at it is two-fold: first, being down 7% year-to-year is a really good trend on cable nowadays. But I'm also kinda cautious because there's a lingering possibility that the hype did do something for the ratings, and this 0.43 is actually inflated compared with what's to come. If it holds up as well post-premiere as it did last year, I think USA's gonna be pretty happy. But let's wait a week and see if that happens.

In a special Wednesday airing, NBC's America's Got Talent (2.0/2.5) stole the stage from another sports staple, winning head-to-head against ABC's coverage of the ESPY Awards (1.6). It was a big year-to-year drop for the ESPYs, which last year scored a 2.2 presenting a heavily-promoted award to Caitlyn Jenner. The good news is the show remained significantly improved over what it used to do on ESPN (including a 1.1 two years ago).

Talent provided the biggest lead-in of the season for The Night Shift (1.3), and it stepped up once again to another new season high.

The glut of unscripted competition wasn't great news for the other reality staples, as Big Brother (1.7) and MasterChef (1.1) were both on the downswing. Meanwhile, American Gothic (0.5) lost another precious tenth at 10/9c for CBS, while Fox's Wayward Pines once again will hope to hold onto a shaky preliminary 0.8.

And the CW rolled out its biggest summer staples Penn and Teller: Fool Us (0.4) and Whose Line Is It Anyway? (0.4). Penn & Teller was down a tenth from its usual 0.5 level last summer.

Schedules Plus is the ultimate almanac to broadcast network primetime scheduling since 2001. It features lineups for three different parts of the year, as well as A18-49+ ratings that more fairly account for historical decline. For more on the tables and charts in Schedules Plus, see this primer.

This post covers Fox Wednesday. It's the only night that has been a regularly-scheduled part of every single American Idol season, so the night has some amazing winter/spring averages. But unlike on Tuesday, Idol never really had a long-term companion on Wednesday, and it regularly aired for both Wednesday hours in some of its later seasons. The second-most frequent Fox Wednesday occupant is actually That '70s Show, which was here a lot in the early-to-mid aughts. While Idol is leaving Fox in 2016-17, this night will still be in very good hands with Empire, which has had the two biggest broadcast drama seasons in the A18-49+ era. See the 2016-17 Breakdown.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

FINALS UPDATE:America's Got Talent (2.4) adjusted up and stayed ahead of the MLB All-Star Game (2.2) even after finals. The All-Star Game was down a rough 29% year-to-year! On CBS, NCIS (R) (0.7) adjusted up while NCIS: New Orleans (R) (0.7) adjusted down.

Fox aired the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which averaged a 1.8/2.1/2.2 in the prelims. It should adjust up a bit, especially since the home market is on the West Coast, but it still looks like it's gonna be a rather sizable downturn after several years of low-3 ratings.

The game may not even be the top program of the night, though its presence did seemingly take a little viewership away from America's Got Talent (2.1/2.6). But this is still about the same raw rating Talent had on Fox's All-Star night a year ago. Maya and Marty posted one last 1.0 at 10/9c.

On ABC, To Tell the Truth (1.1) finished its six-episode run well, with another uptick as it led out of repeats of Sunday game shows Celebrity Family Feud (1.0) and The $100,000 Pyramid (0.9).

CBS' Zoo posted a third straight 0.8, this time with surprisingly little help from its NCIS repeat lead-in (0.6).